Anna Laetitia Barbauld facts for kids

Anna Laetitia Barbauld (born Aikin; June 20, 1743 – March 9, 1825) was an important English writer. She was a poet, essayist, and editor. She also wrote many books for children.

Anna Barbauld was a very successful writer at a time when most women did not write professionally. She was a well-known teacher at the Palgrave Academy. She also wrote new and exciting books for children. Her early reading books were used as a model for over a hundred years. Her essays showed that women could be involved in public life and politics. Other women writers, like Elizabeth Benger, followed her example.

Barbauld's writing career covered many periods in British history. Her work supported the ideas of the Enlightenment, which focused on reason and knowledge. Her poetry also helped to start the Romantic movement in Britain. Barbauld was also a literary critic. She put together a collection of 18th-century novels. This collection helped decide which novels are considered important today.

Barbauld's career as a poet suddenly ended in 1812. This happened after she published a poem called Eighteen Hundred and Eleven. This poem criticized Britain's involvement in the Napoleonic Wars. She was very upset by the harsh reviews it received. After that, she did not publish anything else during her lifetime.

Her reputation was also hurt later on. Many of the Romantic poets she had inspired when they were young turned against her. This happened when they became more traditional in their older years. In the 19th century, Barbauld was mostly remembered as a strict writer for children. She was largely forgotten in the 20th century. However, in the 1980s, a new interest in her work began. This was thanks to feminist literary criticism. This new look at her work helped bring her back into literary history.

Most of what we know about Barbauld's life comes from two books. The first was written by her niece, Lucy Aikin, in 1825. The second was written by her great-niece, Anna Letitia Le Breton, in 1874. Some letters from Barbauld to others also exist. Sadly, many family documents were lost in a fire during the London Blitz in 1940.

Why Anna Barbauld Was Forgotten

When Anna Barbauld died, she was highly praised. The Newcastle Magazine called her "unquestionably the first of our female poets." The Imperial Magazine said her name would be respected "so long as letters shall be cultivated in Britain." She was even compared to famous male writers like Joseph Addison and Samuel Johnson. This was a big achievement for a woman writer in the 18th century.

However, by 1925, she was mostly remembered only as a writer who taught morals to children. It wasn't until the 1970s and 1980s that she started to be included in literary history again. This was due to feminist literary criticism in universities.

Barbauld's disappearance from literary history happened for several reasons. One major reason was the strong disapproval from poets like Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. When they were young and radical, they looked to her poetry for ideas. But in their later, more traditional years, they dismissed her work. Once these poets became famous and respected, their opinions became very influential.

Also, the exciting intellectual movement that Barbauld was part of became less popular. By the end of the 19th century, it was linked to the "unrefined" middle class. Finally, people in the Victorian times saw Barbauld as a "saintly" figure. They ignored her political bravery, her strong mind, and her sense of humor. This created a picture of her that modern writers disliked.

As the study of literature grew into a proper field in the late 1800s, the story of how Romanticism began in England also developed. This version of history said that Coleridge and Wordsworth were the most important poets of that time. This idea was believed for almost a century. Even when feminist critics started working in the 1970s, Barbauld still didn't get the recognition she deserved.

Feminist critics wanted to bring back a certain type of woman writer. They looked for women who were angry, who fought against the roles given to them, and who tried to create a bond with other women. Barbauld didn't easily fit into these ideas. It wasn't until Romanticism itself was re-examined that people truly saw the important voice Barbauld had contributed.

Barbauld's books went out of print. No full scholarly biography of her was written until William McCarthy's Anna Letitia Barbauld: Voice of the Enlightenment in 2009.

Barbauld's adopted son, Charles, grew up to be a doctor and chemist. He married a daughter of Gilbert Wakefield. Their child, Anna Letitia Le Breton, wrote books about literary figures. These included a Memoir of Mrs. Barbauld, including Letters and Notices of her Family and Friends in 1874.

List of Works

This list of works is taken from Wolicky's entry on Barbauld in the Dictionary of Literary Biography:

• 1768: Corsica: An Ode
• 1773: Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose (with John Aikin)
• 1775: Devotional Pieces, Compiled from the Psalms and the Book of the Job
• 1778: Lessons for Children from Two to Three Years Old (London: J. Johnson)
• 1778: Lessons for Children of Three Years Old (London: J. Johnson)
• 1779: Lessons for Children from Three to Four Years Old (London: J. Johnson)
• 1781: Hymns in Prose for Children (London: J. Johnson)
• 1787: Lessons for Children, Part Three (London: J. Johnson)
• 1788: Lessons for Children, Part Four (London: J. Johnson)
• 1790: An Address to the Opposers of the Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts
• 1791: An Epistle to William Wilberforce, Esq. on the Rejection of the Bill for Abolishing the Slave Trade (London: J. Johnson)
• 1792: Civic Sermons to the People
• 1792: Poems. A new edition, corrected. To which is added, An Epistle to William Wilberforce (London: J. Johnson)
• 1792: Remarks on Mr. Gilbert Wakefield's Enquiry into the Expediency and Propriety of Public or Social Worship (London: J. Johnson)
• 1792–96: Evenings at Home, or The Juvenile Budget Opened (with John Aikin, six volumes)
• 1793: Sins of Government, Sins of the Nation (1793)
• 1794: Reasons for National Penitence Recommended for the Fast Appointed on 28 February 1794
• 1798: "What is Education?" Monthly Magazine 5
• 1800: Odes, by George Dyer, M. Robinson, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, J. Ogilvie, &c. (Ludlow: G. Nicholson)
• 1802: The Arts of Life (with John Aikin)
• 1804: The Correspondence of Samuel Richardson . . . to which are prefixed, a biographical account of that author, and observations on his writing, (London: Richard Phillips; edited with substantial biographical introduction, 6 vols)
• 1805: Selections from the Spectator, Tatler, Guardian, and Freeholder, with a Preliminary Essay (London: J. Johnson; edited with an introduction, three volumes)
• 1805: The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside (London: W. Suttaby; edited)
• 1810: The British Novelists; with an Essay; and Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, by Mrs. Barbauld, (London: F. C. & J. Rivington; edited with a comprehensive introductory essay and introductions to each author, 50 volumes)
• 1810: An Essay on the Origin and Progress of Novel-Writing
• 1811: The Female Speaker; or, Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose and Verse, Selected from the Best Writers, and Adapted to the Use of Young Women (London: J. Johnson; edited)
• 1812: Eighteen Hundred and Eleven (London: J. Johnson)
• 1825: The Works of Anna Laetitia Barbauld. With a Memoir by Lucy Aikin, Volume 1 (London: Longman; edited by Barbauld's niece, Lucy Aikin)
• 1826: A Legacy for Young Ladies, Consisting of Miscellaneous Pieces, in Prose and Verse (London: Longman; edited by Barbauld's niece, Lucy Aikin, after Barbauld's death)

Images for kids

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  Engraving of Anna Barbauld, published in 1785

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  Barbauld and her brother, John Aikin (shown here in later years), became literary partners

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  Joseph Priestley (c. 1763): "Mrs. Barbauld has told me that it was the perusal of some verses of mine that first induced her to write any thing in verse."

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  Original title page from Eighteen Hundred and Eleven

See also

In Spanish: Anna Laetitia Barbauld para niños